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Monthly Archives: February 2017

How Smart Will the Armata’s Smart Munitions Be? ‘Really Smart’

21:51 21.02.2017(updated 22:01 21.02.2017)

On Monday, Tekhmash, the Russian defense firm developing shells for the Armata T-15 and Kurganets-25 infantry fighting vehicles, announced that new ‘smart ammunition’ will be created for the armored vehicles by 2018. Speaking to Sputnik, military writer Viktor Baranets took note of the expected features of these smart shells.

Speaking to RIA Novosti on the sidelines of the IDEX-2017 defense exhibition in the UAE on Monday, Tekhmash director Sergei Rusakov said that new smart munitions for Russia’s Armata Universal Combat Platform-based armored vehicles would be ready starting in 2018, the same year that the mass rollout of the T-14 next-generation main battle tank is expected to start.

The company earlier announced that preliminary testing was underway for new smart rounds for the 57mm Au-220M Baikal remotely operated turret, which can be mounted on the Armata T-15 heavy infantry fighting vehicle and the Kurganets-25 family of IFVs, as well as the Bumerang amphibious armored personnel carrier, another new Russian armored vehicle.

Speaking to Radio Sputnik about the news, retired army colonel and military observer Viktor Baranets explained the concept behind these so-called smart munitions.

“Smart munitions are shells which are highly accurate and, to some extent, capable of ‘thinking’,” the expert noted. “For example, the Armata T-15 is equipped with the Afghanit active protection system, which detects flying projectiles and automatically prevents them from reaching the vehicle, either shooting them down or blowing them up. This is active defense.”

“But the Armata can be used not only as a tank gun, but also as a rocket launcher to launch projectiles, which can themselves select their target while simultaneously taking account of a variety of factors,” Baranets added. “During the flight toward the target, this round takes into account temperature, wind strength, distance, the target’s speed, etc.”

In addition, the expert explained that one of the main tasks before the makers of smart munitions today is the creation of defensive systems for the shells themselves. “Along with the creation of highly precise smart munitions…electronics engineers are also furrowing their brows trying to figure out ways to create a system that can prevent enemy jamming of a round’s ‘thinking’ while it flies toward its target,” Baranets said.

Of course, “the real level of protection, and the capabilities of these weapons can be demonstrated only in real battle,” the expert noted. Accordingly, “in Syria, we did not lose any time in vain. For our equipment, the fight against terrorism has also become a very serious ‘exam administrator’. Moreover, many conclusions have already been made to make these weapons even more effective,” the officer concluded.

Designed for installation in advanced and upgraded armored vehicles to increase the firepower of infantry and mechanized infantry units.

It allows you to expand the scope of application of combat armored vehicles at the expense of solving problems shooting at air targets

FIRE CONTROL SYSTEM:Designed to control the process of detection and identification, guidance and fire 57-mm automatic cannon and a 7.62 mm machine gun when firing from the place with the move and afloat in all conditions of combat use.

MBDA to regenerate French, UK Storm Shadow/SCALP EG missiles

Mid-life refurbishment will address obsolescence and to replace life-expired components

Modernisation of the missiles will leverage a joint design phase launched in July 2014

The French and UK ministries of defence have placed a joint contract on MBDA for the mid-life refurbishment of their Storm Shadow/SCALP EG (Système de Croisière Autonome à Longue Portée – Emploi Général) long-range conventionally-armed deep strike weapons.

The contract was announced at a meeting of French Director-General of Armament Laurent Collet-Billon and his UK counterpart, Minister of Defence Procurement Harriett Baldwin in London on 22 February. However, the UK segment of the contract element (valued at GBP146 million [USD182 million]) was approved in October 2016, and the French segment (value not disclosed) on 30 December 2016, respectively.

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MBDA Apache stand-off weapon or Storm Shadow / SCALP

The Storm Shadow / SCALP is a long-range, air-launched, stand-off attack missile designed and developed by France-based MBDA Systems. The missile was developed primarily for the UK and French armed forces. It is derived from the MBDA Systems’ Apache anti-runway missile.

The missile is intended to strike high-valued stationary assets such as airbases, radar installations, communications hubs and port facilities. The Storm Shadow is capable of engaging the targets precisely in any weather conditions during day and night. The long range and low attitude combined with subsonic speed make the Storm Shadow a stealthy missile.

Storm Shadow guidance and navigation system

The Storm Shadow missile is designed to strike the targets with an enhanced accuracy, employing different navigation systems installed onboard.

The navigation system of the missile includes inertial navigation (INS), global positioning system (GPS) and terrain reference navigation for better control over the path and accurate target strike. The missile is fitted with a passive imaging infrared seeker.

Image: tpe-rafale.e-monsite.com

The Storm Shadow missile is programmed with each and every detail of the target and the path to be taken to reach the target prior to its launch. Once released from the aircraft, the missile follows a pre-programmed path at low level with the help of continuous updates from the onboard navigation system. It employs imaging infrared seeker to compare the actual target area with stored imagery repeatedly until reaching the target.

Storm Shadow warhead details

The missile is fitted with a two-stage bomb royal ordnance augmented charge (BROACH) blast/ penetrator warhead.

The first stage of the warhead makes the way for the second stage by cutting the surface of the target. The larger second stage (main) of the warhead then penetrates into the target and detonates.

Storm Shadow propulsion system

Turbomeca Microturbo TRI 60-30 turbojet – Image: leteckemotory.cz

The Storm Shadow missile is equipped with a Turbomeca Microturbo TRI 60-30 turbojet propulsion system, which can produce a 5.4kN of thrust. Source airforce-technology.com

Apart from extreme accuracy, the second element of Storm Shadow effectiveness is the sophisticated warhead it carries, the Bomb, Royal Ordnance, Augmenting CHarge (BROACH). BROACH uses a precursor penetrator charge followed by a follow through main charge. Combined with an advanced fuze (like Paveway IV, from Thales) it has proven to be devastatingly effective. Source thinkdefence.co.uk

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Russia Working on Extremely Long-Range Cruise Missile for White Swan

13:36 25.02.2017

The Russian State Scientific Research Institute of Aviation Systems (GosNIIAS) is working on an extremely long-range cruise missile as part of efforts aimed at modernizing the Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bomber, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported, citing GosNIIAS’ First Deputy of the General Director and Supervisor of Studies Evgeny Fedosov.

The new missile will be fitted onto the Tu-160M, an upgrade of the largest and heaviest supersonic aircraft ever built. The modernized version of the White Swan, as the plane has become known, is expected to enter service in the early 2020s.

Fedosov said that the technical characteristics of the new missile are classified, but added that a previous version of the weapon, which carries a conventional payload, has a range of up to 3,000 kilometers (more than 1,864 miles). The new version is expected to have “a significantly longer” range.

The development of the new missile appears to reflect a broader trend in Russia’s approach to warfare which has seen the Russian Armed Forces place a greater emphasis on long-range weapons systems designed to counterbalance air defenses of a potential opponent.

“If it is a matter of a strategic nuclear strike, then at least one missile will always reach its target. It will be enough,” Fedosov said.

The Tu-160 is capable of carrying Raduga Kh-55SM, Kh-101, Kh-102 or Kh-555 cruise missiles and Raduga Kh-15 short-range nuclear missiles. The Kh-101 is believed to have a maximum range of 5,500 kilometers (over 3,400 miles), while the aircraft itself has a maximum range of 12,300 km (7,643 miles) without refueling.

Defense analyst Dave Majumdar described the Tu-160M as “practically a new aircraft under the hood.” The upgrade will see 60 percent of the plane’s equipment replaced with top-end gear, including hypersonic missiles, improved avionics and electronics.

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Number One With a Bullet: Russia’s New T-50 Jet Gets Sophisticated Shells

18:12 23.02.2017(updated 18:20 23.02.2017)

Russia’s fifth generation fighter jet, the T-50, is equipped with new aircraft cannon shells which have been upgraded to enable ‘smart’ targeting, according to the Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

The Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta quoted Sergey Rusakov, the head of the Russian concern Tekhmash, as saying that Russia’s fifth generation fighter jet, the T-50, has been equipped with aircraft cannon shells that feature synthetic polymer navigation equipment.

According to him, a batch of these sophisticated 30-mm shells have already been produced in Russia. Rusakov said that they will add significantly to the survivability of an aircraft’s guns.

The main new feature of the shells is that their steering components are made of a special plastic, according to Rusakov.

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9-A1-4071K 30mm gun

Image: thefirearmblog.com

The 9-A1-4071K is an automatic, rapid-fire cannon derived from the GSh-301 30mm gun being developed for the Russian Air Force T-50/Su-50 fifth generation fighter jet. KBP started the development of the new gun system in 2014 and the first test firings were carried out in September 2016. The 9-A1-4071K is provided with a water-based cooling system and supports rate of fires of 1,500 rounds per minute. This lightweight cannon is able to fire 30mm blast/fragmentation, incendiary and armor piercing ammunition against air, sea and ground targets. The cannon have an effective range of 200 to 800 meters against airborne target and 1,200 to 1,800 meters against surface targets. Thanks to the Su-50 fire control system the cannon is expected to become more effective to those used on existing combat aircraft.

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Wary of Trump unpredictability, China ramps up naval abilities

Sat Feb 25, 2017 | 8:04pm EST

By Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina | BEIJING

The PLA Navy is likely to secure significant new funding in China’s upcoming defense budget as Beijing seeks to check U.S. dominance of the high seas and step up its own projection of power around the globe.

China’s navy has been taking an increasingly prominent role in recent months, with a rising star admiral taking command, its first aircraft carrier sailing around self-ruled Taiwan and new Chinese warships popping up in far-flung places.

Now, with President Donald Trump promising a U.S. shipbuilding spree and unnerving Beijing with his unpredictable approach on hot button issues including Taiwan and the South and East China Seas, China is pushing to narrow the gap with the U.S. Navy.

“It’s opportunity in crisis,” said a Beijing-based Asian diplomat, of China’s recent naval moves. “China fears Trump will turn on them eventually as he’s so unpredictable and it’s getting ready.”

Beijing does not give a breakdown for how much it spends on the navy, and the overall official defense spending figures it gives – 954.35 billion yuan ($139 billion) for 2016 – likely understates its investment, according to diplomats.

China unveils the defense budget for this year at next month’s annual meeting of parliament, a closely watched figure around the region and in Washington, for clues to China’s intentions.

China surprised last year with its lowest increase in six years, 7.6 percent, the first single-digit rise since 2010, following a nearly unbroken two-decade run of double-digit jumps.

“Certainly, the PLA Navy has really been the beneficiary of a lot of this new spending in the past 15 years,” said Richard Bitzinger, Senior Fellow and Coordinator of the Military Transformations Programme at the S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

“We don’t how much they spend on the navy, but simply extrapolating from the quantity and the quality of things that are coming out of their shipyards, it’s pretty amazing.”

RAPID DEVELOPMENT

The Chinese navy, once generally limited to coastal operations, has developed rapidly under President Xi Jinping’s ambitious military modernization.

It commissioned 18 ships in 2016, including missile destroyers, corvettes and guided missile frigates, according to state media.

Barely a week goes by without an announcement of some new piece of equipment, including an electronic reconnaissance ship put into service in January.

Still, the PLA Navy significantly lags the United States, which operates 10 aircraft carriers to China’s one, the Soviet-era Liaoning.

Xu Guangyu, a retired major general in the People’s Liberation Army now senior adviser to the government-run China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, said China was keenly aware of the U.S. ability to project power at sea.

“It’s like a marathon and we’re falling behind. We need to step on the gas,” Xu said.

Trump has vowed to increase the U.S. Navy to 350 ships from the current 290 as part of “one of the “greatest military buildups in American history”, a move aides say is needed to counter China’s rise as a military power.

“We’ve known this is a 15-20 year project and every year they get closer to being a blue-water navy with global aspirations,” said a U.S. administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“What you have seen this last year and what I think you will see with the new budget is that they are moving ahead with the short-term goal of being the premier naval force in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, with the mid-term goal, of extending all the way to the Indian Ocean.”

In January, China appointed new navy chief, Shen Jinlong, to lead that push.

Shen has enjoyed a meteoric rise and is close to Xi, diplomatic and leadership sources say.

“The navy has gotten very lucky with Shen,” said a Chinese official close to the military, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Now they know for certain their support goes all the way to the top.”

Recent PLA Navy missions have included visits to Gulf states, where the United States has traditionally protected sea lanes, and to the South China Sea, Indian Ocean and Western Pacific, in what the state-run website StrongChina called Shen’s “first show of force against the United States, Japan and Taiwan”.

Last month, a Chinese submarine docked at a port in Malaysia’s Sabah state, which lies on the South China Sea, only the second confirmed visit of a Chinese submarine to a foreign port, according to state media.

The submarine had come from supporting anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia, where China has been learning valuable lessons about overseas naval operations since 2008.

Chinese warships have also been calling at ports in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, unnerving regional rival India.

“It’s power projection,” said a Beijing-based Western diplomat, of China’s navy.

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Adrees Ali in WASHINGTON; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

Boeing fighter jet, feared dead, gets new life from Trump tweets

Boeing’s Super Hornet is poised for a surprising comeback thanks to President Donald Trump’s Twitter broadsides and a strike-fighter shortage caused by delays to Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 program.

Until recently, Boeing’s combat jet was on life support, with work at its St. Louis factory slowing to a crawl as orders dwindled. But that was before Congress approved a $10.1 billion sale to Kuwait, Canada said it would take 18 of the twin-engine fighter and Trump said the Pentagon is “looking seriously at a big order.”

Now Dan Gillian, who heads the Boeing fighter-jet program, is plotting upgrades to keep the F/A-18 flying through the 2040s — and even looking at increasing the production rate. The U.S. Navy may need at least 100 of the Super Hornets over the next five years while it waits for Lockheed’s next version of the F-35. Boeing also sees opportunities for additional sales from India, Finland and Switzerland.

“We have reinvented this factory four or five times,” Gillian said during a recent February morning stroll through the Super Hornet’s final assembly line. In the background, a jet’s nose barrel was being riveted together. Now the company is studying how to boost output while keeping operations lean, “which is a great problem to solve,” he said.

It’s the latest resurgence for a combat jet that took its first flight in 1995 and seemed headed for oblivion in 2001 when Lockheed’s F-35 beat a Boeing proposal to build the Pentagon’s Joint Strike Fighter. The Super Hornet found a lifeline as cost overruns and technical issues plagued early development of the F-35, the first jet designed to meet the different missions of the Marines, Air Force and Navy.

The flurry of Super Hornet sales and a $21.1 billion order by Qatar for Boeing’s F-15 fighter have helped revive the Chicago-based company’s defense business as commercial-jet orders start to lag. The military business was Boeing’s largest at the start of the decade. It accounted for only 31 percent of total revenue last year due to the Obama administration’s spending constraints.

The Navy has relied heavily on the Super Hornet, whose combat credentials were burnished in missions over Iraq and Afghanistan, while awaiting a stealth-fighter version developed for aircraft-carrier decks: the F-35C. The final model of Lockheed’s three-jet family isn’t slated to be declared combat-ready before late 2018, and it could take more than a decade for the 260 jets ordered by the Navy and 80 by the Marines to be delivered.

“All of this is a recipe for survival into the mid-2020s,” Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with Teal Group, said of Boeing. “It wasn’t expected a few years ago.”

How swiftly Boeing moves to step up production — and hiring in St. Louis — could depend on a Pentagon study comparing the operational capabilities of the Super Hornet, which was designed in the 1990s, with the cutting-edge F-35.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis commissioned the study during the new president’s first week in office, after Trump had suggested on Twitter that an upgraded version of the F/A-18 could be an alternative to the Lockheed fighter. The president has repeatedly criticized the $379 billion F-35 program as “out of control.”

Lockheed welcomes the “appropriate focus on affordability and capability,” Marillyn Hewson, the defense company’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. “We are confident such a thorough and objective analysis will show that only the F-35, with its advanced stealth and sensors, can meet the 21st century air superiority requirements of all of our military services.”

Regardless of the outcome of the Mattis study, Boeing appears poised to reap as many as 140 Super Hornet orders between 2017 and 2022 as the Pentagon addresses its strike-fighter shortfall, said defense analyst Jim McAleese.

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg has made the Super Hornet a focus of discussions as he cultivates a relationship with Trump. Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, was spotted holding a brochure for the next version of the jet, the F/A-18 XT, while Trump toured a Boeing commercial jet factory last week. During an address to workers, the president hinted that a large order was ahead.

“We’re excited to work with the new administration to bring the right capability to the warfighter, and it has certainly accelerated that discussion,” Gillian, the Boeing vice president, said.

Boeing has floated concepts for an enhanced Super Hornet for several years, though based on Navy feedback, the company has focused on relatively cheap upgrades. The latest version would extend the fighter’s range, while upgrading cockpit displays with larger screens. Boeing and General Electric are also studying an engine redesign that could boost thrust from the Super Hornet turbines by about 20 percent.

The jet would be made “smarter” by borrowing both the bigger network switches and a distributed-network processor developed for the EA-18G Growler, a sibling designed to jamenemy radar. But it wouldn’t necessarily be stealthier. Boeing has dropped plans to encase the Super Hornet’s weapons systems in a pod aimed at reducing its radar footprint, Gillian said.

“There is no point in trying to compete with an F-35 on stealth,” said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst with Lexington Institute, who’s done consulting for contractors such as Lockheed. “But there are other things like networking where the Super Hornet can deliver capabilities earlier than the F-35.”

The upgrades would cost “a couple of million dollars” above the “low-to-mid $70 million” price that the Navy currently pays for the Super Hornet, according to Gillian. They could also be retrofitted to older models. Boeing holds a separate contract worth about $2 billion aimed at extending the lives of the 568 Super Hornets already in the Navy fleet by one-third to 9,000 flight hours.

Even with the latest upgrades, a “fourth-generation” F/A-18 couldn’t be transformed into a viable competitor to the “fifth generation” F-35, equipped with more advanced radar, sensors and communications systems. The fighters are vastly different, with distinctive roles in America’s arsenal, said Rep. Kay Granger, the Republican lawmaker who would need to approve big changes in defense spending.

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Boeing has floated concepts for an enhanced Super Hornet for several years, though based on Navy feedback, the company has focused on relatively cheap upgrades. The latest version would extend the fighter’s range, while upgrading cockpit displays with larger screens. Boeing and General Electric are also studying an engine redesign that could boost thrust from the Super Hornet turbines by about 20 percent.

The jet would be made “smarter” by borrowing both the bigger network switches and a distributed-network processor developed for the EA-18G Growler, a sibling designed to jamenemy radar. But it wouldn’t necessarily be stealthier. Boeing has dropped plans to encase the Super Hornet’s weapons systems in a pod aimed at reducing its radar footprint, Gillian said.

The latest modernization of Russia’s main battle tank, the T-90, will embrace the firepower capabilities of the advanced T-14 Armata. The Uralvagonzavod machine building company recently published the tank’s photo for the first time.

“The T-90M will receive a modernized smoothbore 125mm 2A82-1M cannon, the one used in the Armata, and a new fire control system characterized by a higher precision and a higher rate of fire, and its barrel durability will be increased up to 900 shots,” Russian military expert Alexei Leonkov told Zvezda TV.

The gun is 20 percent more precise and has 17 percent more muzzle energy (a firearm’s destructive potential is directly proportional to this factor) than the rival model on Germany’s Leopard 2 battle tank. The automatic loading mechanism allows for the use of projectiles up to one meter long, such as the armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding-sabot (APFSDS) called Vacuum-1, which is used in the Armata.

The T-90M’s ammunition load totals 45 projectiles. In addition to shells, the modernized tank is capable of firing Invar and Invar-M tandem-charge guided missiles, which are said to be able to effectively penetrate the protective shielding of all existing and prospective armor vehicles used by foreign armies.

The tank is now protected from enemy fire with the Malakhit reactive armor and the Afghanit active protection system, which were designed for the Armata family of vehicles. Reactive armor is in essence an extra layer of metal “bricks” covering a vehicle’s parts, which bear the main weight of a shell’s hit and cushion its destructive effect. In its turn, the active protection system can “blind”, deflect and strike down an enemy missile or other anti-tank weapon.

The lower part of the turret is now additionally protected by slat armor, shielding it from anti-tank rocket-propelled grenades. The surveillance means of the tank’s commander and the gun sighter allow for an equally efficient search for targets day and night, in motion or in a stationary position.

According to Leonkov, Russia is going to upgrade 400 T-90 battle tanks to the T-90M level.

Thanks to the Armata “refresh pack”, the Russian main battle tank will be able to conduct even more effective combat operations in different weather conditions and strike targets despite stiff enemy resistance.

The family of Armata platform-based military vehicles is the latest achievement of Russian armor engineers.

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125mm 2A82-1M smoothbore gun

The 125mm 2A82-1M is noticeable in that it does not have a fume extractor. These are normally used to pull the toxic gases from the firing process out of the muzzle after the round has exited so they do not blow back in to the turret when the breach is open so the crew avoiding breathing in the gases. As the turret is unmanned a fume extractor is not required.

Image: tanknutdave.com

The main gun is coupled to the autoloader, which Russian media has said is capable of firing 10+ rounds per minute.

The Fire Control System has the latest version of thermal sighting equipment for the gunner and commander’s independent sight. The ballistic computer has the latest sensors and laser range finder and is able to track moving targets increasing the 1st hit probability of the main gun. Source tanknutdave.com